The World Series, the pretentious name for the final of the United States baseball league, ended this season with more sorrow than glory. Which does not take away the merit of the Texas Rangers, who won their first title after a long journey through the desert that began in 1961. The batter Corey Seager was chosen the best player of the final, the true executioner of the Diamondback of Arizona.
But what was once called “the great American pastime” is in a critical phase of disaffection, with less and less popular attraction. Players sign multimillion-dollar contracts while spectators in stadiums and on television desert. Is baseball in decline? analysts ask.
The success of the Texans, based in the Dallas metropolitan area, remained in the background in the vast majority of the American media. The night of his historic victory coincided with the death of the mercurial, tempestuous and brilliant basketball coach Bobby Knight. He will always be remembered for his successes in the university league, his outbursts, even violent ones, and for being the one who led the team that won the Olympic gold in 1984, against Spain, in which some still unknown players called Michael Jordan played. Patrick Ewing or Chris Mullins, three future members of the Dream Team.
Well, Knight's figure overshadowed a baseball championship that has continued to lose popularity, falling increasingly into the pit of indifference. This has been the first season with emergency measures to attract more fans by trying to make the games shorter. It has improved. The matches no longer last almost four hours and there has been more field play. The public, however, continues to distance itself.
This year's finale between the Rangers and the Phoenix-based Diamondbacks, who won the championship in 2001 and then disappeared, marks the series that has drawn the fewest viewers to broadcasts. Both stadiums sold out. But the games, five in total due to the 4-1 that the Rangers achieved on Wednesday, have had barely eight million television audiences each, except for the fifth which, as it could have been the final one, and it was, reached eleven millions. Even so, they are the worst rates ever recorded in the World Series and they were already in the doldrums.
Aside from the chronic problems, the factor that neither of the two teams enjoyed among global fans has been added to this championship final. Neither the New York Yankees, nor the Boston Red Sox, nor the Los Angeles Dodgers, nor the San Francisco Giants or the Houston Astros, the franchises that enjoy the most followers, promotion and fame, have reached the final. His absence diminished a lot in terms of interest.
In addition, the Rangers and Diamondbacks have not been the best during the season, they were relegated from the leadership in their leagues. Their promotion to the final playoff surprised everyone. The members of their staff were rather unknown to the general public, or lacked charisma.
This final lacked a story, although Corey Seager plays in the Texan ranks, a hitter who earned his second distinction as best player in a final, after achieving the same MVP recognition with the Dodgers when they won the title in the 2020 season.
Seager, who in defense occupies the 'shortstop' position (shortstop between second and third base) has offered an extraordinary performance in October, the month in which everything is decided. He is obsessive about his preparation, with videos, meditation sessions and a personal trainer to perfect his batting.
The fifth and final game, the third played in Phoenix, was tied at zero in the seventh inning (there are nine, as long as there is no tie). It was at that moment that Seager connected with a powerful shot, sending the ball through an open area on the left side of the frame. This hit opened the scoring and paved the way to a goal pursued for 63 years.
Success has another godfather. In his first season with Texas, coach Bruce Bochy, a legend, won his fourth World Series title, exactly on the same day, November 1, in which he won his first thirteen years ago, in 2010. , with those from San Francisco. In that final, the Giants beat the Rangers precisely. Bochy won again with San Francisco Bay in 2011 and 2014.
At 68, Bochy helped exorcise some painful memories for Texans fans. In 2011 they took the crown. They had two chances to force the elimination of a St. Louis Cardinals player and failed. And they failed.
“I was in my reclining chair there in Nashville, in my house, enjoying myself,” he explained, remembering the day the Rangers called him and he agreed to leave retirement to take the reins of this team. “I was already in another galaxy, believe me. But I was very fortunate and blessed to be able to return to baseball in this type of situation,” he declared after the victory.
